Michael Fontanini

Packt Publishing

Michael Fontanini

Michael Fontanini has a passion for video games and computers, loves animals, and is a very friendly yet timid person. He first got into computer programming when he was just a kid, and was given a toy made by VTech, called the PreComputer 1000. It had a programming mode in it, which was a very basic form of the language BASIC. Out of curiosity, he played around with it, and became fascinated with his new ability to make a computer do whatever he wanted. He soon discovered QBasic (QuickBasic) on a Windows PC (a DOS version of the language BASIC that came with old versions of Windows) and started messing up with that. From there, he eventually moved on to Visual Basic, and then C++ and C#.

As he grew older, his passion for video games grew, and eventually, he realized he could combine these two passions and make video games. Nintendo's, The Legend of Zelda series, has been one of his favorite game franchises and a great source of inspiration. Creating virtual worlds in computers also fascinated him. So, he has spent countless hours playing with game programming and level creation recreationally, and has learned a lot along the way. He aspires to become a successful indie game developer.

He was held back by some anxiety issues and hasn't been very successful in life, but the book Game Development with SlimDX, Packt Publishing, was a great opportunity, so he pursued it. Michael enjoyed this new journey and is proud of his work. He is always there for his friends and family. Having been a bit of a loner growing up, he learned the hard way how precious good friends and family are. He is thankful for all that he has.